Google MapsThe office park in Little Silver which houses the office of Jacqueline LoPresti, who is charged in an illegal drug ring.

TRENTON — Authorities have charged 22 people with trafficking millions of dollars worth of oxycodone tablets and selling the drugs to customers across the state, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman announced today. Among those arrested were two doctors -- one from New Jersey and another from New York.

Fishman said 16 of the 22 suspects were arrested this morning, including the alleged ringleader, Christopher Erwin, 47, of Fair Haven, and added that one person was already in custody.

According to the criminal complaint, Erwin allegedly paid the two doctors, Jacqueline Lopresti, 50, of Fair Haven, and Hassan Lahham, 53, of New York, to write thousands of prescriptions between January 2009 and December 2010.

Erwin and others members of the ring then filled the prescriptions at pharmacies in Monmouth, Ocean and Atlantic counties and sold the tablets throughout the state, the complaint said.

"Today more people abuse prescription drugs in the U.S. than the number who use cocaine, heroin and methadone combined," Fishman said at a news conference in Trenton. "We trust doctors to heal our bodies, not poison our communities."

The 16 defendants arrested today were to appear this afternoon in federal court in Trenton. Fishman said he expected to track down the remaining five people suspected of trafficking soon. "We're looking for them," he said.